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“Interesting conjecture on your part.”
“Personally, I believe it was Cash Porter. I don’t think you’d get your hands dirty dealing with someone like Mickey Pitts, but then again, I might be over-estimating you, Franco. Still, there are many things on this computer. For example, this.” I opened the laptop and showed him the photos I’d left open on the desktop screen.
He went still for a moment, nothing in his eyes, which was impressive, considering he was looking at his employer and Cash Porter, with her blouse open and his hand up her dress. Taken from a distance by a camera with a very powerful lens. Like the one we’d found in Thacker’s room. People really need to close curtains. Of course, as I thought that, I remembered the peeping fox at Liz Danger’s porch.
“There are more,” I told him. “These were the cleanest.”
“What are you going to do with those?” Franco asked.
“Nothing. I’m not a blackmailer. But I am going to bring Cash Porter down. It would be best if your boss wasn’t anywhere around when that happens. Not because I’m going to do anything. Because Cash will. He’ll hold onto her like a drowning—”
“Yeah,” Franco said. “I know what he is.”
“I repeat, I am not going to do anything with these photos. This is not a threat. But I am going to bring Cash Porter down. Consider that a threat if you will.”
He nodded once. “Does anybody else have these?”
“I don’t know,” I said. “But my short acquaintance with Thacker leads me to think he probably sent at least some of them to Cash because I have no trouble believing Thacker was a blackmailer. Which is why Cash sent Mickey Pitts after him and this computer. If Cash has them . . . ”
He just looked at me, and I knew he could do the math. Cash would use them to force Amy Wilcox to support him.
“Then there’s this.” I reached into the Gladiator and retrieved the blue ledger. “It’s Cleve Blue’s. An alternate set of books. For his illegal operations. It corroborates what Thacker wrote. About cash from the Iron Wolves going to Cleve Blue. Money laundering. And it also lists to the penny, all the people Cleve Blue was paying off.”
“Cleve’s been dead for a while.”
“Six years,” I said. “Still within the statute of limitations.”
“Why does this concern us?” Franco asked.
It was a bluff question, probing to see how much I really knew.
“The senator’s dear departed husband is in here,” I said, continuing my bluff.
“You could have gotten that anywhere,” Franco said. “Hell it might be a blank book that you—” he paused as I held it open briefly, showing a page written in Cleve Blue’s unique penmanship and with his dark blue ink. I snapped it shut before Franco could actually read anything.
“You know, Cooper, the senator made you a pretty good offer the other day. A gold shield in Cincy PD. Why don’t you take it? Better pay. Better conditions. Better health plan. Better retirement.”
“You’re a pitch man for the Cincy PD now?”
“Could it be,” Franco mused, “that no other department would touch you after they learned about your father?”
“I didn’t apply anywhere but here.”
“Why?” Franco asked. “I mean, really. Of all the police joints in all the towns, you walk into Burney.”
“That was pretty bad,” I said.
He gave a slight grin, appreciating that I recognized the reference. But the grin didn’t last. “Your friend,” Franco said. “Raina Still. She works for Cincy PD. She could just as easily not be working for Cincy PD.”
I took a step toward him. “I’m trying to keep this professional, Franco. That would make it personal. That’s an entirely different level. She’s got nothing to do with any of this. She was warned off and is abiding by that warning.”
Franco waved the threat off. “You still haven’t said exactly why you wanted to meet. Other than show and tell on your part.”
“Cash is spiraling,” I said. “He’s been using his own product, and it hasn’t done a damn thing for his mental stability. It would be smart for the senator to cut him loose before he does something really insane and her name gets tarred with his.” I held up the computer. “And if he has these photos because Thacker was trying to blackmail him? Better get him out of the senator’s life now. Right away.”
I saw a flicker of something cross Franco’s face. If that was his tell, it wasn’t much.
“Cash is his own man,” Franco said.
